Wildfire Gospel (Habitat) Read Online Free Page B

the dark, which doesn’t help me at all.
    “What is he?” Dante asked. “In all my years I’ve never seen anything like his beast-form before.”
    I ignored the question and tried to figure out the fastest way I could convince Zulu I was me, without being sliced by his sharp claws first. Surely he could smell that it was me. My gaze returned to the sticky wetness of the blood-drenched floor. The sickening metallic odor overwhelmed my senses.
    “Could he catch my scent with all the blood around?”
    Angel peeked into the window herself. “He may not be able to smell you.”
    I tossed her an annoyed look.
    “What?”
    I leaned her way. “Are you just going to read my mind anytime you want to?”
    “My bad. It’s just I’ve never had power before and your mind is the only one I can read.” She gave me a wide smile. “Did you know that your thoughts are hot and smell like sulfur?”
    I frowned.
    “Fine.” She rolled her eyes. “I won’t do it unless it’s an emergency.”
    “Thanks.”
    “Are you ladies done?” Dante dove his hands into his pockets.
    “Give me a minute.” I held up my hands. “I don’t see you rushing in to save your people either.”
    “We don’t have a minute.”
    “Do you have a party to go to?” I gestured at the suit he had on. “You look like you’re about to attend an event.”
    “One of my men think they found Mother Earth. I’d like to be there when they capture her. I figured you would too.”
    You damn right I would.
    I faced the door again and grabbed the doorknob. “That still doesn’t explain why you’re dressed up.”
    “Women around the habitat dream about me when they lay in their beds. Most think of me while they make love to their husbands. I simply don’t want to disappoint them if they happen to see me out on the streets.”
    Were-bullcrap.
    “Your ego is all the motivation I need to run to my death.”
    “You won’t die.” Angel grabbed my hand. “We’re going in together. Maybe I can distract him long enough while you convince him that you are you.”
    And watch you die too?
    “No,” I said. “I go in by myself.”
    “Nope. I’m coming.”
    A gust of white light exploded around the area and blinded me for a second. Angel must have been using her magic to move around again. She’d poofed in and out earlier. When she did, white light filled the area. It took another second to regain my eyesight. Angel was no longer near me, instead she knocked on the glass from the other side. Zulu’s roar beat against the space. Somehow he must have sensed Angel’s presence, probably from seeing her in the dark or sniffing her out.
    “Angel!” I fumbled with the doorknob, opened it, and raced in.
    As soon as the door opened, decapitated heads tumbled out on a river of mucous and blood. The stench singed the hairs on my nostrils. It must’ve been fifty decaying skulls, all with missing skin and dug out noses. Tongues stuck in eye sockets. Brains smashed into torn lips. Bigger body parts crashed out next—feet split in half, intestines roped around arms with a bow, and the hands, dear god, each one of them were flayed out at the finger tips like flowers and secured at the wrist with glossy veins as if Zulu desired to gift Dante with a bouquet of fingers.
    He’s well past sanity right now.
    Two of Dante’s guards screeched in horror. Dante backed up several feet and thrust his claws out. “We may need to go with my alternative.”
    “Which is what?”
    “Send in a small bomb.”
    “You do it and the whole compound will burn down. I’ll make sure of that. It’ll be the biggest fire in history. They’ll probably call it Dante’s Inferno.”
    “Just get in there so I can close the door!” Dante edged back again. “And get a new joke. Do you have any idea how many times I’ve had a fire threat punch-lined with Dante’s Inferno?”
    I jumped over rotting arms and legs and stepped on a few to get in there. Dante’s guards helped me out, by